James 2:4

4 haven't you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

James 2:4

Are ye not then partial in yourselves
That is, guilty of such partiality as must appear to yourselves, and your own consciences must accuse you of; or do not ye distinguish, or make a difference among yourselves, by such a conduct, towards the rich and the poor:

and are become judges of evil thoughts;
or "are distinguishers by evil thoughts"; that is, make a distinction between the rich and the poor, by an evil way of thinking, that one is better than the other, and to be preferred before him.

James 2:4 In-Context

2 For suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring, dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in.

3 If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes so that you say, "Sit here in a good place," and yet you say to the poor man, "Stand over there," or, "Sit here on the floor by my footstool,"

4 haven't you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my dear brothers: Didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him?

6 Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?